We want Land Wapsi to Farmers – Vidya Dinker

Mangaluru: “We want a white paper from KIABD on how much land was acquired, how much land was given to industries and of this how much land is actually being utilized by them. It is clear that the industries are using the state to acquire land. The unused land should be given back to the owners as land wapsi,” said Vidya Dinker in a press meet held at Hotel Woodlands here on April 20.

Vidya Dinker said, “Even MRPL was allotted a huge mass of land for a planned 3 million metric ton refinery. It was so huge that they ended up building a 12 million metric ton refinery even after selling 400 acres of land to BASF.”“A real estate business is being run by the government,” alleged while addressing the mediapersons at a press meet held at hotel Woodlands here, on April 20.

Lolaksha alleged, “A real estate business is being run by the government. In the name of development, the government has acquired land from the farmers. 641.915 acres of land was allotted to Suzlon Infrastructure Ltd in Udupi and within two years, Suzlon sold the land to Synefra Engineering & Construction Ltd. This land was later sold to Aspen Infrastructure Ltd in 2012. On 9 February 2016, Aspen Infrastructure limited has published an advertisement in the Mumbai edition of Economic Times to sell 147.384 acres of land .”

He further said, “According to Karnataka Industrial Policy 2014-19, parties cannot sell the land but can give it on lease basis only. But the land was sold to Suzlon on 27 September 2007 for Rs 31,46,27,500 and later Suzlon sold it to Synefra for Rs 39,03,80,623 on 29 February 2012. As this is not legal we had lodged a complaint with the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce, who had promised to look in this matter on 3 March 2016. So far there has been no official communication in this regard.”

He also said, “According to Udupi DC proceedings, 508.69 acres of land allotted to NPTCL was withdrawn by the government as they had not utilized the land. But the above mentioned private companies have not utilized even 100 acres of the 641 acres land allotted to them. Why isn’t this land being withdrawn?”

Lolaksha said, “Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act 1966 is a draconian act which lets the government take land for industrial use easily. Even the 1894 land act is better and people friendly. The 2013 act introduced by the UPA government is lenient, but Karnataka government was the first to oppose it.”

“If we want to sell our land, we will do it on our own and there is no need for the government to do it for us,” he added.